At least 20 people have suffered severe injuries and approximately 50 residential buildings were razed after a massive gas pipeline explosion rocked the Aleto community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday evening.
The explosion, which occurred along the Old Bori Road corridor, triggered a high-intensity fire that consumed residential structures, commercial kiosks, parked vehicles, and local mechanic workshops before emergency containment steps could be established.
Victims suffering from varying degrees of burns were immediately rushed to nearby medical facilities across the local government area for urgent medical treatment.
Community leaders and eyewitnesses reported that the underlying pipeline, operated by the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), had been leaking continuously for three weeks prior to the blast. Local authorities confirmed that formal petitions and petitions detailing the structural gas rupture had been previously dispatched to the facility operators, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), and the Rivers State Ministry of Environment without effective preventive repair.
Civil society groups and environmental rights advocates have called for an immediate joint investigation visit to assess the total extent of environmental degradation, demand full corporate accountability, and provide emergency relief materials to displaced residents.
Speaking on the incident and pre-explosion warnings sent to regulatory authorities, Daniel Chuma, Leader of the Eleme Legislative Council, stated:”There was a leakage on another section of the Nigeria Gas Company pipeline.
We wrote to them and submitted a petition to NOSDRA and the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, copying the police for urgent intervention. We asked for a joint investigation… Today we were called to an explosion at the same pipeline that has destroyed over 50 houses, cars, and caused many casualties.”
With the site partially cordoned off by local responders to prevent further casualties, residents of the Aleto community continue to urge both federal and state authorities to mandate an immediate technical audit of all oil and gas infrastructure traversing the Niger Delta region.
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